Meeting scheduled

I spoke with Carol today, and we have set up Dom's IFSP review meeting for Monday, August 14 at 2:30 pm. That was the only time both Monica and Jacqui were available, and it works out for us because it's during Dom's naptime. It sounds like one or two representatives from the Special School District will be here to answer any questions we might have about the program. Carol is also going to invite Brandie, our parent educator. Our living room will be packed!

Also today, we had our regular speech session. Monica hadn't seen Dominick in two weeks and was impressed by how his vocabulary had grown in that time. I told her how he has started stringing three words together, counting to 20 by himself (we're working on 30 now), and properly using plurals and possessives. She thought all of that was great.

Our goal for now is to get him to start imitating more, especially when it comes to verbs. He does very well labeling things, but most of his words are nouns and adjectives. The only verb in his repertoire is "eat." If he can start using verbs, he'll be able to communicate that much more effectively. Monica believes that Dom does have a little bit of speech apraxia, which is why he doesn't do much imitation. She was working with him on some picture cards today, and he'd respond immediately with words he knew, but anything he didn't recognize, he wouldn't repeat. Even though he does repeat some things with us, it's not to the degree that I've heard other toddlers do. So we still have a way to go, not only with vocabulary but with articulation, but that will come later. I have noticed a few improvements in that area: "ommy" became "mommy," "ouse" became "mouse," and "uck" became "muck" (milk). Maybe Dom will figure that out on his own in time.

Speaking of the boy, he's just woken up from his nap as he did this morning, calling for me. Today was the first time he's done this. I much prefer it to the usual crying.